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* A 1994 survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Americans use guns to frighten away intruders who are breaking into their homes about 498,000 times per year.[20]

* A 1982 survey of male felons in 11 state prisons dispersed across the U.S. found:[21]

• 34% had been “scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by an armed victim”
• 40% had decided not to commit a crime because they “knew or believed that the victim was carrying a gun”
• 69% personally knew other criminals who had been “scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by an armed victim”[22]

Theories abound about why this murder-suicide happened. Small comfort is found in the 69% decrease in these tragedies reported by the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community (IDVAAC) at the University of Minnesota.

An unarmed NFL linebacker is still capable of homicide- more so than most. He had a range of options at his disposal- including non-violence.

He chose murder and then suicide. Unlike the usual demographic in these scenarios, he wasn’t unemployed nor under-employed.